Adoption
by theatergeek13
Summary: Angel said she wanted to adopt a kid. After she dies, Collins decides to honor her wishes. My first story, please read!
1. Chapter 1

**Hi! This is my first story, so be nice when you review. And you will review. Oh, you will review. Or else. (insert scary music here)**

**Disclaimer-I don't own RENT or any of the characters, blah, blah, blah.**

Prologue:

"_Wouldn't it be great to raise a kid?" Angel exclaimed excitedly._

"_Huh?" responded a bewildered Collins, caught off guard by Angel's random remark._

"_You know, help a child grow up? I just think it would be such a rewarding experience to help a kid get through life."_

"_Uh, that's great baby, but how would we…..you know………"_

"_Oh honey," Angel giggled, "we'd adopt."_

_Collins just sat there._

He had just sat there. And now Angel was dead and Collins was on his way to a children's home.

**Hope you like it! Iknow it's short, but it is just a prologue. The chapters will be longers. Reviews Puh-leeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeaze.**


	2. Chapter 2

A/N- I hope everyone likes it. sorry for the long wait. Will post more soon.

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Collins sat on the subway, plagued by memories that he had kept suppressed for the last eight years. Ever since he had started decided to adopt, over a year ago, the secret he'd kept ever since he'd met any of his current friends had threatened to burst forth.

_"Darling, I just think it's so very honorable that you are helping out a foster child."_

_Oh, it's nothing really…"_

_"Don't be silly, of course it is!"_

_"Well, I guess you're right. I am doing society a great service."_

_Ten-year-old Tom Collins sat in his room, eavesdropping on the two wealthy women's conversation, growing more infuriated by the second. Dong a society a great service!? That's what everyone had said when the Murray's got two akitas from the humane society. He was no better than a dog to them._

_Of course, he was treated well. Nice room, good food, comfortable clothes. It's just the way they talked about him when he wasn't around that bothered him. He didn't care about the room, the food or the clothes. He hated them all. He hated mainstream society, he hated dogs. He hated being a foster child._

It was true. Collins had been a foster child. He hadn't even told Angel………….

_"………And then my parents kicked me out, and I ended up here somehow," Angel finished, "What about you?"_

_"Huh?" Angel had, once again, managed to take Collins by surprise._

_"What was your childhood like, silly?"_

_"Oh…. uh... pretty uneventful. Grew up in the suburbs, parents were strict, I became an anarchist, wound up here." Collins stammered out._

_"But aren't' there any funny stories or anything?" Angel pressed._

_"Uh, none that come to mind." He was usually such a good liar!_

"Oh, okay." Angel didn't believe him, but she decided to let it go. He would tell her if he wanted.

He had lied to her. He had lied to his Angel. He would never forgive himself. He remembered the exact day he'd decided to adopt.

_"Oh, do you remember this?" Mimi asked, holding up a flashy silver mini-dress Angel had worn on her last New Year's._

_"Yeah, I do." Collins replied. They were going through Angel's stuff. It was February. Mimi had been in the hospital for a month. Her t-cells were finally in the vicinity of healthy. That's all they could ask for right now._

_That's when he remembered the fateful conversation Angel and he had had._

_"I'm going to adopt a child." Collins burst out._

_Mimi dropped the pair of platform shoes she was holding._

"What_!?" she exclaimed._

_"Well Angel wanted a kid, and now that I think about it, I want one to. And I'm not exactly going to be with a girl anytime soon, so adoption makes more sense." Collins explained._

_"Well. Um. Collins," Mimi said, grasping for the right words, "Don't you think you should think this through first? I mean, maybe you could be a foster parent first, and then see--"_

_"No!" Collins exclaimed, losing his temper, "do you know what foster kids go through? They get attached to a family, then BAM! Time for the next one1 I will not take part in that!"_

_"Collins, okay, calm down. I just meant that--"_

_"No, Mimi, I'm going to do this. I _want_ to do this."_

The others hadn't been much more supportive. But Collins wouldn't be swayed. This was Angel's dream. This was his dream. This was—this was his stop. Collins got off, and walked to his destination. He stopped in front of the gray brick building whose sign read _St. Peter's Children's' Home_. Collins paused in front of the doorway.

"For you Angel."

And with that, he walked in.

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Hope u like. Reviews pretty please! 


	3. Chapter 3

Here it is. Hope you like! Sorry about the length...

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"And then, we went to this café we call the Life-I'll take you their sometime. We all sang and danced around-she was the best dancer." Collins paused to take a breath, and looked at the infant in his arms. He was amazing. Long black curls, sky-blue eyes….

He had known the child he was getting. The Home had been making sure he was a "fit parent" for the past year. Today had just been finalizing it. A last few forms to sign, and getting the baby.

The baby. His baby. This was his child. He couldn't believe it. He finally had a child.

It had started out as just something in Angel's memory. But now, he knew that it wasn't just for her. He wanted to protect a child from a childhood he had, of being dragged from foster home to foster home. But most of all, he wanted a child of his own. To raise, to teach, to love. To love him.

He sat on the subway, holding his baby, telling him stories about his ten wonderful months with Angel.

When they got home, Collins gently placed the baby in the crib he had bought. He stared down at the boy. He had given him the best name he could think of. It had been Angel's given name, her boy name. He knew Angel hadn't liked it, but anything tied to Angel was beautiful to him.

"Good night, Alvaro," he said.

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Reviews are appreciated greatly! 


	4. Chapter 4

Wow...it's been awhile...please don't kill me. If you're still reading this story, that is.

"Hey Collins!"

"Collins, you home?"

"Hey father dearest!"

Collin's friends, Roger, Mark, Maureen (the three that spoke, in order), Joanne, and Mimi, entered Collins apartment. They continued to call their friend, until he finally came rushing out of the baby's bedroom.

"Shut up, I just got Alvaro to sleep. I swear I'll kill all of you if he wakes up."

Then, as if on cue, the sound of a baby crying began to emit from Alvaro's room.

"Aw, see what you did now?" Collins groaned.

"Oh, don't worry Collins baby, I'll go take care of him, you take a break," Maureen said as she bounded off to the baby's room.

"Uh, Joanne, why don't you go watch her," Collins suggested anxiously, jerking his head the direction Maureen just went in. Everyone else just nodded, and Joanne ran off toward her lover.

"So, Collins, how's this whole father thing going?" Mark asked

Collins just chuckled, "Well, I think I can kiss sleep goodbye for awhile."

The others just laughed. Kind of nervously, Collins noticed. "Hey guys, is something wrong?"

"What? Oh, no, no, no. We just, um, gotta get to work and stuff. Roger's got an audition. Isn't that right, sweetie?" Mimi rambled.

"Huh? Oh, _that_ audition, yea. Don't want to be late for a potential job. Come on guys!" Roger called to Joanne and Maureen as they came out of the baby's room. Collin's friends rushed out of the apartment and slammed the door, causing Alvaro to wake up again.

As Collins rushed into his new son's room, he couldn't help but wonder what was up with his friends. They had seemed happy for him at first, but what happened at the end of the visit? Everyone got so tense. What if…no, that couldn't be it. They had to have come around to the idea of him being a dad by now. He was just being paranoid, of course. Roger probably did have an audition. And all the others had jobs. Lack of sleep was making him crazy.

A horrible smell hit him as he entered Alvaro's room. Yay for fatherhood.

"Well, that went well," Maureen whined as the group descended the stairs of Collins building. Joanne and she had been eavesdropping after they got Alvaro back to sleep.

"Shut up Maureen," Roger shot back, "If you thought it was so awful, you could have come out and helped."

"Come on guys, let's not do this here," Joanne interjected, "We saw his son. It's a step. Besides, might hear us fighting."

"We do have to do something about this, though," Mark reasoned, "I wish we could have stopped this before it happened but we didn't. But we do know that the only reason Collins did this is because Angle mentioned wanting a kid. He's going to be tired of this in a month."

The group walked back to their own apartments silently. Mark had just said what all of them had been thinking since day one. Collins wasn't a father type. He never had been. This wasn't like him. They would most definitely have ot do something about this.

Reviews are awesome!


	5. Chapter 5

**Okay, first of all, I want to apologize for the typos. I'm going to try to catch those in the future. I was just in a hurry to get chapter 4 up and missed a bunch of errors. Feel free to call me out on it!**

**Second of all, thanks to everyone who reviewed. I really appreciate it. The more reviews there are, the harder I work to update quickly!**

**Third, I haven't done a disclaimer since the first chapter, so just in case you forgot, I don't own RENT. If I did, I would probably have lots of better things to do than write fan fiction.**

Mark took a deep breath and knocked on Collin's door. The group had decided that it was best if they left this job to one person so Collins did not feel ambushed. Joanne had a case and Maureen was obviously not the person to do something like this, so Roger, Mimi, and Mark had drawn straws. Guess who won (or lost, whatever you want to call it)? They had waited two days, and then decided it was time for confrontation.

Collins opened the door and smiled. Well, smiled as much as one can smile when they have only gotten two or three hours of sleep in the past forty-eight hours.

"Hey man! Just you?" Collins asked, glancing behind Mark.

"Yeah, just me. Everyone else had…stuff," Mark began, "Mind if I come in?"

"Oh, no. Come on. Alvaro's finally asleep. Good timing."

Mark laughed weakly, "You know, funny you should mention Alvaro," No, that was the wrong way to begin this, "So, how have you been holding up since Angel died?"

"Well, I'm alright now. Alvaro's been a big help. Weird, huh?" Collins responded. He had a feeling something was up, but he was going to let Mark get it out before he jumped to conclusions again. Besides, the poor guy looked terrified.

"Well, that's what I wanted to talk about. You see, I know that Angel, really, really wanted a kid, and that you wanted whatever Angel wanted, because you wanted Angel, and Angel wanted you, but now that Angel's gone, which I'm sure Angel did not want, and you didn't want it either, maybe it's time you stopped wanting what Angel wanted and started wanting what you wanted again. I think that's what Angel would want."

About five minutes passed before Collins said, "What?"

Mark sighed. He had rehearsed that speech over and over in the mirror, and it still hadn't come out right. Well, here goes nothing. "Don't you think that maybe you're using this baby as a coping method and a way to get close to Angel again?" Oh crap. Oh no. That was definitely not what he practiced. He watched the anger in Collins build up, and then…

"YOU THINK I TAKE THE ADOPTION THAT LIGHTLY?! YOU THINK I SEE A CHILD, WHOSE NAME IS ALVARO, BY THE WAY, AS A COPING METHOD," they both listened as Alvaro started crying, "NOW LOOK WHAT YOU DID. GET OUT. NOW. MARK, I SWEAR, IF YOU DO NOT LEAVE THIS APARTMENT RIGHT NOW I WILL KILL YOU."

Mark sprinted out of the building and back into his, Roger's, and now Mimi's, loft.

"So, how'd it go Mark?" Mimi asked from the kitchen.

"Tell you later," Mark gasped as he collapsed on the couch.

Meanwhile, back at his place, Collin's stood steaming in his living room. He had managed to stay somewhat calm as he fed and changed Alvaro, but he couldn't hold it in any longer. He punched the wall about four times before going to get himself a beer. How dare Mark say that Collins was merely using his son as therapy. He knew better than that. Besides, it wasn't just Angel that wanted this, he did, too.

Right?

**The plot thickens…reviews!**


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